Heavy rain and strong winds failed to dampen the enthus-iasm of some of the world's leading multi-event athletes who gathered at Tynedale Athletics Park for the 10th Hexham Inter-national.

And for Poland's Karolina Tyminska the tough two-day battle against the elements was instrumental in setting a new championship record, improving on Svetlana Kazanina's 2003 figures of 5,953 points by 73 points.

Though the conditions meant the Poland athlete struggled to score any life-time bests, she still managed to come out on top in four of the seven disciplines and left her best performance to the last, where her 800m time of 2min 8.09sec gained her a massive 993 points.

Tyminska, ranked sixth in the world this year, failed to finish in the European Championships in Gothenburg after pulling out when picking up an injury during the opening hurdles.

However, she showed no signs of rustiness at Hexham, and in the end her 6,026 points - making her the first athlete to pass the 6,000-point barrier in Hexham's history - was way ahead of the runner-up, Commonwealth Games representative Julie Holman of Great Britain.

Despite travelling to Hexham looking for a score something near her season's best of 6,402 points, Tyminska was still smiling at the end of a gruelling contest.

"The weather was horrible, but the people are very nice," she said.

"I did not manage any pbs over the two days but that was understandable. I was very pleased with my shot competition and my long jump and 800m were OK.

"Otherwise I wasn't too pleased. If only the weather had been better I think I could have posted a much better score.

"It was still a good competition and I would like to come back next year, and hopefully the sun will shine!"

Despite being pushed into second place, Holman was still pleased with her two days' work, especially after coming into the competition looking to consolidate after being out injured since the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

"I wasn't looking for too much, just to build on my last competition in Holland and I think I did that despite the conditions," said Holman, who missed the European Championships due to a torn calf muscle.

"Out of the seven events I was more than satisfied with at least five but the heavy rain on Saturday made high jumping a lottery.

"That was where I was hoping to do well but unfortunately, even though it was the same for all of the girls, I messed it up a little. You can't do anything about the weather."

Holman's second place spoiled a clean sweep for Polish athletes as third and fourth places were filled by Joanna Grzesiak and Ewa Nowakowska respectively.